Last year, Harry R. Lewis, a former dean of Harvard College, published a book called ``Excellence Without a Soul," in which he discussed the shortcomings of Harvard's undergraduate curriculum. He argues Harvard may prepare students to do well at jobs, but it does not teach character or morality for them to become better people. Lewis questions the purpose of education.
As I see Korea become more and more Americanized, or globalized; as I see the students' zeal for learning English from mediocre native English speakers while their families paying expensive tuitions; as I notice English signboards inundating every street; and as I notice the phenomenon that public and private institutions target for globalization, I cannot help but think about what is becoming of Korea. Does Korea want to become a global power without a soul?
Um . . . sorry for ruining your country.
21 comments:
This piece was written from the perspective of a person who hasn't lived in Korea for quite some time. It is pretty easy to blame NETs for everything wrong with English in Korea since the NET is the most public face of Korea.
I think the writer alludes to the fact that the system is broken somewhat when he makes the case that Korea should slow down the pace of it's development.
Still his analysis of the situation seems to be done a bit carelessly without any kind of research. The kind of research that a Harvard grad should do.
Yeah... but at the same time there is a underpinning of truth to the sentiment. It is the classic nation-coming-of-age tale: change traditions to adapt and become a world leader or remain intact and fall behind?
Korea will be a nice place when these adjushis die off.
By Tong Kim
My course is called ``Contending Powers Over the Korean Peninsula."
- So you teach a course based on the victim mindset in Korea. Great, another one.
This morning I installed a landline telephone at my residence.
- Good thing you have one of those F visas. Are you aware of what E-series holders have to go through to...oh, never mind.
Things have changed in Korea. Early in the 1960s, residence phones were rare commodities and they were owned and used only by the privileged. Unlike the many cell phone shops, which are ubiquitous now, there were few telephone brokers in the old days. People paid dearly for having access to a home phone line.
- It's true. Korea has been repressed. In the 60s, there were cell phone dealers everywhere in America.
I find my new Internet connection to be a lot faster than the one I used in Washington...the platforms at subway stations are now all protected with sliding glass doors... There are no safety devices like this in the United States.
- Maybe living in a country the size of Indiana has something to do with the internet speed. And those doors are, um, not just there for safety. Google "Nation Master" and "Suicide rates."
Speaking of the transportation system, I was impressed with the efficient utility of the transit cards, which people can use for the subway, busses, taxis, and even public telephones.
-Yes, yes. Impressive, indeed. Really give me wood.
A week ago I had the opportunity to ride a KTX bullet train to a city about 100 miles south of Seoul. The ride was smooth, comfortable and very fast and the fare was reasonable. It was better, faster and much cheaper than the lines that run between Washington and New York.
- And it was built by French engineers. But I think I know where you're going with this.
Seoul is considered as one of the world's most developed cities. What perhaps impresses an American visitor most would be the restroom facilities available at each subway station. In Washington, the facilities in buildings are locked and you have to borrow a key to use them. Public restrooms are rare in American cities and they are not clean.
-It is considered? By whom? And just what does developed mean? If you mean crowded, I agree. If you mean polite, I cannot. I agree that the existence of washrooms in the Seoul subway system is better than none, but I would hardly call them clean. Koreans spit on the floor and leave their toilet paper in baskets. If you're lucky.
Today's Korea, with the benefits of its impressive economic performance, is geared to move towards becoming a global power. The present government, like its predecessors, stresses the goal of becoming an ``advanced nation" or a nation with global recognition and global power.
- A global power would be less concerned with slogans and more concerned with, um, substance.
One hundred years ago, Korea lost its independence to Japanese imperialists, who later forced Korean women to serve their soldiers as ``comfort women," the survivors of whom are in their mid 80s and still suffering from the nightmares of the past. This year Kim Yu-na defeated her Japanese rival by a wide margin.
-Here's the pitch!And...Way outside! What the hell does that have to do with figure skating? This is just a nationalist rant.
Korea is recovering fast from the aftermath of the recent global financial crisis that began with a Wall Street failure. It has an ambitious green energy policy goal, taking the initiative in global efforts to protect the environment.
- Ah, finally an economic meltdown that can be blamed on the Americans. Wait, you blamed the Asian financial crisis on them, too? For real? And Korea is going to save the environment? By paving it?
Seems that he was more critical of Korean society than of the native English speakers it employs.
Still, it was an unnecessary diss.
Korea takes pride in its transition from a recipient nation of international aid to an aid-providing country to other nations in need. Korea remains appreciative of U.S. security assistance that helped defend its freedom and independence during the Korean War. Now it supports U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-What double-speak. I think that Korea contributes very little in international aid, is just emerging from 8 years of pro-Pyongyang governments and has sent token armed forces to the safest parts of Iraq and Afghanistan.
South Korea certainly is becoming ― if it isn't already ― a world-class, free, capitalist society. Everybody is working hard to compete and to get ahead of others for a better life. Both the government and people are busy moving towards a higher standard of living with more material affluence and more technological convenience. The system of market economy and democracy by its inherent nature creates a widening economic gap between the rich and the poor. This is where the role of governance comes in to maintain a viable balance to sustain public tranquility.
-You teach at Kodae? Is that the best you can do? Empty words like world-class aside (and I doubt that anyone thinks that Korea is not capitalist), the role of the Korean government has been to enrich its friends and to abuse the poor. Balance is not something achieved in ultra-competitive societies. And are you sure that everyone is working hard? Aren't some of them just lying about?
Given the ingenuity and industry of the Korean people,
-Racist claptrap.
Last year, Harry R. Lewis, a former dean of Harvard College, published a book called ``Excellence Without a Soul," ...Lewis questions the purpose of education.
-I see. The purpose of education is to understand how great Korea is. It is all so clear to me now.
As I see Korea become more and more Americanized, or globalized; as I see the students' zeal for learning English from mediocre native English speakers while their families paying expensive tuitions; as I notice English signboards inundating every street; and as I notice the phenomenon that public and private institutions target for globalization, I cannot help but think about what is becoming of Korea. Does Korea want to become a global power without a soul?
-As I read this sentence; and as I wonder how you can condemn teachers as mediocre when you cannot punctuate; and as I wonder why you equate Americanized with globalized; and as I wonder how inanimate signboards can inundate anyone; and as I am eating a pizza, yum, I cannot help but think about what kind education you are going to give your students.
If South Korea loses its spirit and its purpose as a nation, it will also lose the values of its history, culture, and national traditions. Even in an age of globalization, a nation should preserve and maintain its identity and pursue its national purpose ― that is what Korea wants to do for its people and for its role in the world.
-Korea has a purpose? The whole country? And that purpose is to preserve its national identity but also to serve the world? Is that possible? Are you sure about that?
What's your take?
-My take is that there is definitely much to be improved in Korean poltics, and I thank you for asking my opinion. I think that English teachers are clearly at the root of every problem in Korea today, and they should all be sent home in bodybags. What's your take?
I read this last night and thought the essay was all over the place. I wasn't sure what exactly its point was, but the random shot at "mediocre English teachers" really didn't help. He's forgetting that while the country is indeed covered with English, it's not transitioning to the point where English is being used usefully; it's just a bunch of Koreans wanting to imitate the ones in power -- the "cool" guys, in other words. That has nothing to do with us. We didn't ask them to try to use English as a cosmetic symbol of trendiness. It's something they did willingly. Why the blame should come on us? I don't think we want to see them use English in the way that it's currently being used.
Sorry for the rant, but whenever the blame goes to the English teachers for incompetence, you also have to keep in mind that a lot of Koreans are attempting to use English incompetently (ie. as decoration rather than communication) and are also to blame.
I'm preaching to the choir, probably.
If you have bad employees either you:
1) Hired the wrong people.
2) Trained them poorly.
Korean managers need to take responsibility.
@Andrew: Two thumbs up! Kim's remark is just gratuitous, and it obscures his main point. The other day, my wife told me an anecdote about one of the older women in her circle who has two competitive daughters. One will study at a foreign language high school, so the other wants to go abroad to study. I remarked, that it was a waste of time for either to go abroad, if not just petulant. Any Korean who goes abroad is alienated from any networking opportunities in South Korea, and most likely will not develop the skill to get a job in America. The problem is the double whammy of testing and networking for hyper-competitive Koreans. And, not to be forgotten, there's a serious lack of jobs for the average candidate who's not the best scorer in his/her group.
Props to both girls for their ambition, but Korea's soul is just cruel.
Not sure what exactly is meant by "have a soul" in this article. Given the debate over whether people in fact have them, the notion that nations (non-animate territories) have them is presumably more suspect.
Also, presumably Korea is already a global power, sporting economic and political. It achieved a fantastic result in Canada; it has one of the top 5 GDP growth rates of any OECD country for 2009start-2010end; it is hosting the G20 summit this year.
It seems likely this criticism was based on an appeal to "higher-values" of the sort that the world "soul" represents. It's hard to define those values. Some may say in terms of equal rights of all citizens before law; others may think of higher-values as related to spiritual fulfillment. There's a buddhist story of a flock of gulls that travel the world to find nirvana, yet find it only they return home. Spirituality starts from within, not without.
Maybe, then, this writer has confused countries with people. If his main point is to say that Korea should become less open to foreign influences in terms of its presentation of marketing campaigns through media including the road-signs in English, then he should say so clearly and for intelligible reasons. However, there doesn't seem to be any link between this and a country losing its soul, as only people can have souls.
The quoted extract seems, on reflection, a desire to return to something which arguably never existed: the Arcadia that the writer has created for himself to represent the harmonic pre-English phase of Korea's development.
@Hugh:
Good points, especially about the "soul" dog whistle and the organic fallacy. It highlights just how nationalistic even "progressives" are in South Korea. it's a media war of metaphors.
Great, solid article written by a Korean returnee.
It's true. Compared to the ghetto fabulous wasteland they call America, South Korea is truly on its way up while the US is clearly on its way down.
As for mediocre English teachers, also true. There are a lot of mediocre to piss poor English teachers in S. Korea. Not the fault of the English teachers themselves of course, as much as the system which hires losers just because they happen to be white.
But overall, a sober analysis of Asia's rising dominance over a crumbling West.
I struggle to understand the author's point. He has enjoyed the benefits of globalization and English fluency. He has status and money. But he doesn't want other Koreans to benefit, at least not at the expense of him losing some vague idea of what Korea used to be before he toddled off to the west and made his fortune.
Is that it?
@Puffin Watch:
Organic nationalism isn't logical. I'm reminded - and forgive me if I repeat this anecdote again - of one of my drill sergeants, a first-generation Korean-American. In BCT he told the company, that the North Koreans should drive every South Korean into the sea, because "they have lost the old ways".
Coming from the lips of a Gulf War vet, in perfect English, in Missouri, I can't make heads or tails of that statement, either. I marvel that Sergeant Roh could be such a good soldier, and say crap like that.
I guess there are people who can balance such demands.
Honestly, I have to ask- mediocre compared to what? I would have to say that I have not seen a worse NET teacher than a bunch of my old high school teachers. I had mostly great elementary teachers and a mixed bag in university. The instructors here (that I have seen) are concerned and caring about the students. If you want to find some mediocre teachers, just look to the Korean teachers.
I am working on year 6 being in Korea now if anyone is wondering.
@brent:
I'd ask those with with education degrees for objective standards for evaluating teacher performance. It's one disability both the US and Korean systems share.
What perhaps impresses an American visitor most would be the restroom facilities available at each subway station. In Washington, the facilities in buildings are locked and you have to borrow a key to use them. Public restrooms are rare in American cities and they are not clean.
It's a small point in his article but it says a lot. The Seoul subway system and the washrooms are clean. Amazingly clean compared to washrooms in systems found in the USA/Canada.
However, did he stop for a second to notice who is cleaning those washrooms? 70 year old women. Has he noticed yet there's a huge army of low paid elderly women and doing this kind of menial work because there is no social safety net. A nation that takes care of its elderly who fall between the cracks is a nation with real soul. Frankly, he should worry less about Korea losing its soul and more about Korea transferring its riches down to its poor elderly.
These people shouldn't be moving bricks in summer or pulling garbage carts by hand at age 70. They should be enjoying their grand children and a pension/health care system that allows them.
That's a good point, Puffin Watch.
But I wouldn't hold the US up as an example there.
We hear occassionally---like in the elementary school teachers' guides---how great Korea's care of its elderly is compared to the US'. But what people forget, when they continue to make the false claim that families live together and grandparents live under the same roof, is that we're getting into the first generation of elderly and the first generation of women participating in the workforce and not staying home to care for their aging mothers-in-law . . . and lo and behold, you have retirement homes ("Silver Towns") popping up.
All that said, I do enjoy the relatively clean bathrooms you find at airports, train stations, (many) bus stations, and subways. Unfortunate, as Puffin Watch just said, that they're being cleaned by people who should be home with their grandkids or should be doing something other than wiping urine off floors.
But I think you find a high level of cleanliness---well, at least enough people to give the bathrooms constant attention---because people are not afraid to work, and don't write off jobs as beneath them. In the US we don't have that.
Hell, I remember being a McDonald's manager 10 years ago and often having to clean the bathrooms myself because of some punk-ass 16-year-old---let's be honest, often some punk-ass 35-year-old---said "shit, I ain't cleanin no bathroom." One person doesn't do his/her job, and the public has to suffer. A little different attitude in Korea, and I appreciate it.
Another thing he has to ignore is the job ads on the Seoul subway system he raves is so clean. Like the job ads that specify lower wages for women who apply for the job. Is this some of the soul he's afraid of losing? A soul filled nation where equal work does not receive equal pay?
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